Pottery wheels for manually throwing pottery typically are used for forming conventional sized pottery, such as bowls, pots, vases, and the like. Such wheels are usually more than a foot in diameter, and can support several pounds of clay or other working material. As such, prior art pottery wheel driving means are relatively large electric motors that are powered from a conventional wall outlet. Such pottery wheel apparati usually must be supported by a table or bench due to the significant weight of the electric motor, pottery wheel, and working material supported thereby. Consequently, most pottery wheel apparati are not easily portable. Further, most prior art pottery wheel apparati are not well suited to be casually carried about, such as while hiking or fishing, and are not likely to be useful unless a conventional wall outlet is nearby.
Several prior art patents, however, do teach pottery wheel apparati that are portable. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 4,028,041 to Zambrano, Jr., on Jun. 7, 1977, discloses a potter's wheel that is compact and relatively light-weight. However, such a device still requires use of a conventional wall outlet. Such a device, therefore, is not well suited for use away from a conventional outlet, such as near a lake or other relaxing natural environment. Therefore, devices of this type do not allow the user to take advantage of the relaxing, therapeutic effects of working pottery in a natural setting.
Forming pottery of any size is quite relaxing and, as such, is useful for therapeutic applications. Miniature pottery, while not used as is conventionally sized pottery, is often used in doll houses and other miniature settings. Miniature pottery, due it its relatively smaller radius, is not subject to the same degree of inertial force as larger pottery, so rotational speeds up to 10,000 rpm may be used to create such miniature pottery. However, prior art pottery wheels rotate too slowly for easily making miniature pottery. A further drawback of prior art devices is that the size of the pottery wheel is too large for conveniently creating miniature pottery. A large pottery wheel provides no safe place to rest one's hands while performing the minute and delicate forming operations necessary for throwing miniature pottery. Further, such a large pottery wheel is unsafe at rotational speeds needed for producing for miniature pottery. The circumferential edge of a larger pottery wheel reaches tremendous speeds when such a wheel is spinning upwards of 5,000 rpm.
Clearly, then, there is a need for a pottery wheel apparatus that is extremely portable, light-weight, and not dependent upon proximity to a conventional wall outlet. Such a needed device would be well-suited and safe for forming miniature pottery, and would allow the user to take advantage of the relaxing effects of forming pottery while being in a natural environment, if desired. Such a needed device would be extremely simple to manufacture, clean, and maintain, due to its relative size and simplicity, and would require no complex belt clutch means, pulley systems, or other complicated machine elements found in the prior art devices. Such a needed device would easily fit in a back-pack, be carried by hand, or the like. The present invention fulfills these needs and provides further related advantages.